HORSES 343 
though heavy horses may have more than driving horses. 
The best horsemen advocate giving a working horse only a 
fourth of his day’s ration for breakfast, a fourth for dinner, 
and the other half at night. Dusty hay is very harmful and 
must not be fed to them. It is the principal cause of heaves. 
Watering. — A horse should not be watered, nor fed grain, 
when very warm, but should wait a short time to cool off. If 
not warm, it should have water before feeding, and it is well 
to give it another drink after feeding. It must not be allowed 
to drink too large a quantity at once. 
Muddy Legs. — When a horse comes to the stable with 
muddy legs, they should be rubbed down or washed to avoid 
stiffness or rheumatism. Of course, it is well to rub or curry 
the horse all over, but the legs are the most important. 
Bridle Bits. — When bits are colder than freezing tempera- 
ture, they should be warmed in some way before putting them 
into the horse’s mouth. To such a cold bit the tongue and 
mouth may freeze fast, and this may tear the mucous mem- 
brane. If a person wants to take the risk, he can verify this 
by touching his own tongue to a piece of iron that is ten or 
twenty degrees below the freezing point of water. We sug- 
gest that he try a wet finger before using his tongue for the 
purpose. 
Commands and Signals.— A horse has poor reasoning 
ability, but an excellent memory. This fact determines all 
methods of training. Do not expect the horse to exercise 
judgment or to reason out what you want him to do. The 
principle is, to make him do certain things in response to cer- 
tain commands, and then ever after he will follow the same 
commands in the same way. On account of his remarkable 
memory, it is important not to let him do things that we do 
not want him to repeat. If we give him too heavy a load to 
